Radio today (Sept 1935-Dec 1936)

RADIO FOR THE RICH * There has been quite a rumor that wealthy persons have given radio the ice, and that the leisure class is generally fatigued by broadcast efforts. Families on the right side of the tracks are described as piqued by our programs, cool to our cabinets. At last, a formal check-up on the radio attitudes of the very rich. Victor M. Batner, director of advertising and sales promotion at CBS, has a report on a survey made by a university among the first families of Boston, based upon solid interviewing rather than on casual phoning. All the elegant houses were found to be radio-equipped with from 1 to 14 sets, the average being 3 receivers per mansion. They averaged 3 hours of listening daily, and mentioned by name, 129 different features which they ate up. Favorites among all types of features were ranked : Boake Carter, Major Bowes, Rudy Vallee, News Bulletins (in general) and the Ford Symphony. REVISE ADVERTISING ALLOWANCES TO DEALERS * A number of leading radio manufacturers are instituting separate merchandising reforms relating to advertising allowances. The antitrust laws will not permit definite, binding and concerted action among manufacturers regarding advertising allowances; therefore, any such action must come separately by individual companies. It is understood that without any agreement or un Atwater Kent's F. E. Basler, now hailed as new sales manager for Gibson Elec. Refrigerator Corp. King Football's master's voice. The coach climbs onto this elevated perch to watch his team, and bellows instructions, through the twin speakers, report Wilkinson Bros., Dallas, Tex. derstanding whatever, several leading set companies are adopting policies which will result in improvement in future radio merchandising practices. Several leading companies will require a minimum contribution of 50 per cent by dealers in cooperative advertising. It is also understood that some set companies will hold the advertising allowances to their distributors to between 2 and 3 per cent. THE KING'S KINDERGARTEN • "Nursery for B.B.C. Staff!" wisecracks the British press, commenting upon the proposal of the British Broadcasting Company to establish itself a training school for non-technical members of the staff Idea seems harmless and quaint, like something out of the pastel chatter of London's tea tables, but the press cries "Dictatorship" and "Door Shut on New Blood !" BBC's director-general, Sir John Beith, thinks that future vacancies could be better filled by drawingfrom a training school, and that present employees don't know all there is to know about sound broadcasting. Hence the need for the discipline "nursery." SMALL ADVENTURE * As if the serviceman's tube shelves were not already sufficiently mixed up, a small brown animal has emerged from the Bronx Biver to make things worse. Anyway, a mischievous little mink got bored with what goes on in minkland and spent a recent night at the shop of serviceman Morton Silver, manager of Badio Engineering Service, 1682 Washington Ave., The Bronx, N. T. Minks, if that's what it was rather than a mongoose, are fast, strong and reckless; this one managed to tip over a radio cabinet and to scatter tubes by the wild dozen. They had tried to corner him before the shop was closed for the day, but he retired into a wall until the floor was cleared of persons with weapons. Last report, a trap was baited. Not with a radio tube, but with a live fish, looking tenderly eatable and ratheT doomed. TOO OLD TO DREAM * That the broadcast schedules of the day are freighted with melody of genuine charm and variety is apparent in the annual analysis of tunes played on NBC and CBS webs made by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. ASCAP made its count on all 1935 airings, by song titles, giving each tune a point for being played on a single station. Most-played tune for the year was "When I Grow Too Old To Dream,1' with 29,161 points; other ranking hits were "I'm In The Mood For Love," 26,537; "In A Little Gypsy Tea Boom," 25,228; "Lullaby of Broadway," 24,864; and "Cheek to Cheek," 24,134; During the period, it turned out that radio listeners got the advantage of the work of 131 different authors and composers. E. C. Mills, general manager for ASCAP, is willing to say that the radio rankings of the tunes are the best indication of what songs were uppermost in the national consciousness. Carl McKelvey, who has been named to general manage Galvin Mfg. Corp/s. new home radio dept. November, 1936 11